this friday morning on "early today," patience and gasoline are in short supply as the northeast works to recover from sandy while help continues to pour in from the military, kred cross, and also springstein, bon jovi, and many others. obama, romney, and countless political candidates around the nation present their final arguments on who you should vote for and why you should vote for them this final weekend before election day. plus, the final details of what really happened on the 9/11 benghazi terror attack. >> announcer: this is "early today" for friday, november 2nd, 2012. good morning, everyone. i'm lynn berry. a horrific week for the northeast and mid-atlantic

states continues to unl fold. 94 people are confirmed dead in the u.s. from sandy. more than 4.5 million still don't have power, but that is down from a high of about 8 million. some of the biggest cries for help are coming from new york's statin island where the super storm has claimed at least 19 lives. among them, two little boys, brothers. a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old. their bodies were found in a marsh on thursday. their mother's suv was washed out by rising waters during the hurricane. people living on that island told nbc's ann curry, support has been far too slow in coming. >> every single person on this block lost everything. >> we just want everyone to know that we are hurting down here and we need help immediately. >> fema teams did walk through statin island neighborhoods thursday trying to make sure victims signed up for federal help. homeland security chief janet

napolitano will visit there today. elsewhere, the national guard handed out water, food, diapers last night. 17 military aircraft arrived in new york state carrying repair trucks from california. in virginia the u.s.s. san antonio was loaded with supplies and sent off to new york and new jersey. the city of hoboken is finally getting back on its feet after flooding stranded 20,000 people. governor chris christie says the power situation has drastically improved. >> remember, at the height of the storm we were at 2 point. >> petros: 7 million, so we're a million more customers have been restored from the height of the storm. in connecticut, garbage is piling up on the streets as flooded basements are being cleaned out. back to new york, washed out subways are starting to come back, and there are huge lines to get on buses as the city deals with a gridlock nightmare. work could begin today on removing a massive crane that's been dangling high above a mid

town manhattan street. a lot of people are questioning the decision to go ahead with the new york city marathon sunday. mayor michael bloomberg says it won't hurt storm relief efforts. and to lower manhattan where power may not come on until the weekend. our reporter from wnbc found an incredible sight near a supermarket. >> look how desperate it has got in this neighborhood. people are dumpster diving. what they're going after here is the food, some that i've spoken with. some so hungry they literally pried open this dumpster. they are literally picking through. >> just a frightening sight. four days after sandy, fatigue and frustration mount as people wait for electric power and more help to meet the overwhelming need. nbc's danielle leigh is in atlantic city, new jersey, for us this morning. danielle, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, lynn. the once bustling and famous atlantic city board walk now

sits dismantled and empty. it's evidence of the long road ahead that's already leading to frustration. up and down the jersey shore they're working to remove debris and get the power back on. the entire gas system needs to be rebuilt. hundreds of people are still locked out unable to determine if their house has been flattened. they're losing patience that the recovery cannot happen more quickly. in atlantic city we're already getting another light rain and there may be no rest for the weary. forecasters say another winter storm could be on the way and it could get here well before the power is back on for millions. reporting live in atlantic city, new jersey, i'm danielle leigh, back to you. >> bill karins will have more on that. crippled public transportation means people need to commute by car. at the pump patience is in short supply. nbc's katie tur reports.

>> reporter: if they weren't coming in on fumes, they were coming in empty. >> for miles you've been pushing it? >> yeah. >> reporter: block after block after block hundreds of cars idol inching towards the gas station. in fact, you needed a helicopter to see how long the lines were. >> the line is going all the way around. >> reporter: from northern new jersey south to philadelphia, east to long island and as far west as pennsylvania people were on the hunt for gas. >> we've been in line about 2 1/2 hours? >> yeah. >> 2 1/2 hours. >> reporter: police were there to maintain order. they waited and waited. >> central jersey, they don't have gas. working on a generator. >> reporter: in new york city 50 to 70% of stations are not able to sell fuel. no power, no pumping. in new jersey that number climbed to 80%. before the hurricane hit five refineries on the east coast were shut down or forced to work

to a lower capacity. three of them are up, one remains shut down and one has power going so it should be a matter of time before they're operating at full capacity. still, patience is running out, along with the gas. >> this guy just cut me. i'm running out of gas. >> that was nbc's katie tur who was reporting. tonight there will be a benefit concert. it will have bruce springstein, bon jovi and billy joel. 8:00 central time. commercial free and brought to you on the networks of nbc universal. to find out how you can help the victims of hurricane sandy, head over to our website, nbc news.com. for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc's pliks bill karen. we gave you a preview of the nor

reeser. >> a mini nor rester. one one hundredth or one one thousandth. don't be afraid of it unless you have a beach front property that really wasn't that hurt, that's the only areas of concern we have with this next storm. any wave action, there's no dunse left, could cause more damage. as far as inland areas, power outages, no concerns whatsoever. the worst part would be the one rainy day that the electrical crews wouldn't be able to put on as much power. where is the storm going to be on tuesday, election day? going to dip down here through the deep south. it will get a little bit more moisture with it. it will move up the coast. for election day, kind of rainy from atlanta into south carolina late through the day to north carolina. then it will move up the coast into wednesday and then off the shore. again, about one one hundredth of the storm we just dealt with. not too much concern. as far as the storm, what's left of superstorm sandy, still in quebec.

four or five days ago it made landfall. still linger gerg. both of these storms are dragging a lot of cold air through the power outage zone. it's been too difficult to stay in your houses with temperatures in the 40s and 50s. middle of the country, much of the nation not looking at any travel trouble today. that's a look at the national forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. plenty of sun shooin areas like memphis, tennessee and oklahoma city. beautiful weather for this november. anywhere near the lakes you're dealing with lake effects showers. areas like cleveland, 43. so, once again, yes, the next storm will move up the mid-atlantic through the northeast. mostly it will be all rain. the waves will be the only issue because there's no protection for any structure. >> cleanup efforts, just a pain. >> yes, it'll set everyone back by about a day. >> bill, thanks so much. this weekend marks the final

stretch a very long campaign. >> and after all that we've been through together, nevada, we sure as heck can't give up now. >> now i want you to know, i'm confident about the future. i'm optimistic. >> the frenetic race to election day less than 96 hours away. and a must-see joe biden top ten list. you're watching "early today." >> announcer: brought to you by the makers of sen trim men and women. have you taken the most complete multi-vitamin today?

96 hours to go. the candidates plan to spend a lot of time in the battleground state of ohio. nbc's tracie pots has those details. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: lynn, good morning. we've now taken a look at their travel schedules between now and tuesday and, boy, are they going to be busy. let's start with governor romney who is going to hit seven states between now and election day, including four on sunday alone. tonight he is in ohio.

in fact, both of the candidates are in ohio today. he plans to stand with 100 supporters, celebrities, and politicians backing his campaign. governor romney last night was in virginia beach. this was a makeup rally from before the storm. the president's campaign is running out of steam. meantime, president obama also hitting sechbl states between now and election day with the closeness on ohio. he will be in ohio every day until voters head to the polls. the president making his closing argument and focusing on that must-win state. he is also picking up a key endorsement from new york mayor michael bloomberg. earlier in the week he said they were too busy to have a presidential visit. tracie pots for us in washington. thank you. more political news for you. missouri senate candidate todd

akin gained national attention for the legitimate rape comments. now he's got an ad with two women talking about of all things rape. >> my name is kelly, i'm a full-time student, a mother. i'm a woman who had an abortion. i've been raped in my past. >> the reason that i'm voting for todd and i'm so proud of him is that he defensds the unborn. >> paul ryan has been busy on the stump trying to shore up swing state voters while saying just how tough he and romney really are. >> we can't keep doing this. look, mitt romney and i can handle whatever they're going to throw at us for the next five days. >> while vice president joe biden has, indeed, been offering his advice on the topic here, early voting. >> if you vote early, you don't have to pay taxes. i'm sorry, i'm being told that's not accurate. >> that's not accurate. >> single and looking to mingle?

find that special someone in the early voting line. early voters receive a $5 million donation from donald trump. >> wow. >> honestly, don't you want this election over with already? >> yes, we do. >> pretty good. and check out this political sign on jack and june zellin's lawn in republican heavy castle rock, colorado. it reads, a romney fan stole my obama sign. do it again and you'll make my day and tv news. they did. the zellin's add that the sign is brightly lit at night. way to take care of that. well, brand new information on the cia's role in the benghazi attack. details next. bill karins will have your weather.

stories making news on this friday morning. the cia has released a detailed time line of this september's attack on the u.s. mission in benghazi, libya. it shows that security officers went to the aid of american diplomats less than 25 minutes after the first call for help. and the agency specifically denied allegations that personnel were ordered to stand down. a senior secret service agent who served on the protection detail for president obama killed himself last week in washington. he was under investigation for violating policy by having a long standing relationship with a woman from mexico without telling the secret ser stris.

in sports, football, philip rivers connected a career best 90% of his passes including two touchdowns as the chargers pounded the kansas city chiefs 31-13. only one game in the nba, toechby parker hit a buzzer beater and the spurs edged the oklahoma city thunder, 86-84. now over to wall street where u.s. and asian markets were given a boost. the clou climbed 46 points. tokyo and hong kong gained 140 points and the hang seng up 289. traders and voters are watching for any surprises from today's october report. it's the last one before the election. that should keep the unemployment rate at 7.8%. a slew of upbeat data drove thursday's momentum. consumers, retail, automakers.

it has been a rough work for martha stewart's company. offices were flooded forcing earnings to be delayed twice. now the company says it's laying off 12% of its staff. shutdowns and free fathers are costing new york transit authority about $18 million a day. new york senator chuck schumer says fema will reimburse the city in full. sand yes's price tag is $50 billion. making it the fourth costliest disaster behind katrina, 9/11 and andrew. homeowners may be spared a costly deductible. and business is about to boom for companies that made oprah's annual favorite things list. we always love this one. a few of your favs, an $1800 battery and peddle pered bike, microsoft's new $500 surface tablet and a $40 blue velvet

cake. blue velvet. just ahead, bill karins is going to have your weekend weather forecast, plus how one family in eastern pennsylvania is making the best of being without power. you're watching "early today."

well, welcome back. we'll get into your weekend forecast starting with today. no big storms across the country. nice and calm and mild in the southern half of the country. little chilly up along minneapolis, chicago and all across the northeast. little bit of moisture begins to

increase in texas with some showers maybe even into tennessee and arkansas. nothing too bad. as we go through sunday, everything still pretty much the same. it's really, lynn, not until we get into tuesday and wednesday. not a huge one, but another storm. >> unfortunately, election day storm. bucks county, pennsylvania, family is still without power just like millions of people in the northeast. this family has found a unique way to cope with the storm. we have the story. ♪ light my home >> reporter: looking for something to do while your power is out? ♪ it's getting warmer and it smelts like rotten cheese ♪ >> reporter: lots of people get on each other's nerves but they decided to write a song for the occasion. ♪ light my home >> reporter: the boys and their

mom are doing their best to cope. >> kind of stops your life. you can't move forward with your normal routine. >> reporter: they even found a way to make sure lily stays warm and they found some ingenius ways to survive. >> running under the faucet and stand watching it fall down and then give it a quick rinse and you're good to go. >> basically find an outlet where you can get one. that means any local convenience store, fast food store, bring your charger, maybe buy water, something like that, and charge a phone. >> reporter: the boys say they'll keep strumming until the power starts a 'coming. ♪ light my home >> i smell hit. i smell hit. i'm lynn berry. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

you are looking live from nbc 4 city cam. waking up to cloudy skies and cold temperatures. a peek to the weekend, just ahead. >> welcome to news 4 today for friday, november 2, 2012. five days after sandy's landfall, nearly everyone is back to school and work in our area. one delay, pendleton county schools, on a two-hour delay. the county had to deal with days of power outages after the storm. >> power is back on at most homes that lost it during the

storm. both power companies have 500 customers in the area still in the dark. and crews aren't resting. they head to new jersey to help utility crews there. 1,500 crews are part of the operation. largest contingency of dominion power workers ever mobilized. crews will have some company from our area. washington gas is also sending crews to new jersey to help with relief efforts. the crews will leave from forestville this afternoon. d.c. gearing up from a different kind of storm. a snowstorm. public works crews will take snow plows out for a dry run at 9:00, hitting the streets on a dry morning gives crews a chance to get a handle on what to do before they have to did it for real. a new arsenal of equipment, including